Our Grandson!

Sad that I post so rarely now.  How can life be so busy?  Of course, I am working full-time and I don't think I could easily get Jack to take over posting here.  Besides, he's VERY busy - golfing, and working part-time at home depot.  He enjoys being retired, but after all, he's got to pay for all those golf balls some how.

We are just thrilled to have two beautiful grandchildren now.  Anson Rhys Van Fleet was born on May 15, 2013 (at least I'm posting before his first birthday). It was so great that we were able to be with them when he was born, and actually held him in the hospital on the day he was born.

He is such a delight - so happy, and active! We were last there the 3rd weekend in January (celebrating a belated Christmas) and while he's not walking yet (at 8 months!) he really, really wants to. He is crawling, he pulls himself up, and he's great at doing the plank! He smiles sooo easily, and has a great laugh.

8 months old photo

Christmas in January

Me and Anson - he's about 10 hours old here

Eva gets to met her baby brother in the hospital

Still Growing

So in spite of me not keeping up on my blog, Eva's still growing up.  Isn't she a doll? These are all taken at home, in CA.

Eva growing up

I need to be writing more often. Eva is growing up so fast. I got to spend two more weeks with her the end of May, so here's a few photos of that time plus more up to date ones. The one on the left is one of my favorites (oh, so many to choose from!) and I have more "May" ones after that. We're at Taco Bell here, she's sitting up in her Bebepod - my favorite chair for her when we were out and about. I like to have her up nice and high, not snuggled into a stroller, so that everyone can see her and tell me how beutiful she is! Ha - am I shamelessly proud grandma or what?!

This is on one of our trips to Starbucks. I tried to bribe her with a coffee, but she was far more interested in the passers-by than me or any old coffee.

The first week that I was out in LA with Melissa and Eva, her daddy was at the Cannes Film Festival, he was gone for two weeks. Melissa surprised him by having Eva with her at the airport when he got home, and you can see how much Alex and Eva missed each other. Such a touching photo.

The day after Alex got home, we all headed up to Oxnard, Ca for the Strawberry Festival. It was lots of fun, good food and awesome strawberries. Mel and I made jam the next day.
And now I haven't seen Eva in person for 2 1/2 months, and rely on photos and FaceTime on the Ipad/Iphone. Fortunately I get lots of pictures - it helps.


Eight months old on August 9 - how can she be that old already? The year is flying by. We miss her like crazy, but know that we are blessed grandparents!

The Month of Eva

To you, it might have been April 2011, but I'll always think of it as the month of Eva. I was in LA the entire month, taking care of her while Mommy & Daddy worked. Alex' mom and I were able to cover the time between Melissa having to go back to work till Memorial Day - after which Eva was able to start daycare. What a blessing that Jan and I could do this, and what a blessing for us to have that time with them.

This photo is her 4-month birthday. That right arm is always moving so it looks a little blurred. Don't you love the faux-hawk?

More fun photos!

Eva loves her jumper - and the blue toad who watches her

Winnie the Pooh outfit

E stands for Eva

Poppy was able to spend a week with us too!

Sitting on the patio with Poppy in her Notre Dame dress. Guess who bought that for her

In her Bebepod - great chair!

How cute is she?!

In her Easter dress on Easter Sunday!

I am a Grandma!!

And yes, I have been one since December 9 - shameful that I haven't posted a photo of our beautiful Eva Noelle Van Fleet before now! Just trying to catch up the blog in a chronological order, and it was too easy to fall behind.

Anyway, isn't she just perfect?! 7 lbs, 5 oz and 20 inches long. She wasn't due till Dec. 26, but the doctors thought it was best that Melissa was induced and so, Eva was early. You can read all the details if you follow Mel's blog at The Van Fleet's.

Jack and I were blessed to be able to go out to L.A. (well,Sherman Oaks, to be specific) on January 1 and see Eva in person! Jack stayed a little less than a week, and I stayed on another week. I'm heading back for the entire month of April, so that Eva can be with family as Mommy goes back to work. Alex' mom has been out there too, in January to help out, and returned on May 15, so Mel could go back to work on the 16th.

Enough - here's the important part - pictures!

What a happy mommy Melissa is! Eva is glad to meet her, you just can't tell by her expression right now!

Alex is the proud daddy - what a great photo of both him & Eva

Eva calls me Kiki - well, she will. Once she learns how to talk. Or maybe not, they sort of make thier own decisions about that I've been told.

Poppy & Eva - I think this was taken on New Year's Day

Growing up quick! It's Eva's 2 month birthday, February 9, 2011

I just LOVE this photo! She keeps that right arm extended a lot - and is already hip enough to do a fist bump.

Pretty in Pink! She's 3 months old now! Don't you just love the faux-hawk?

3 months old on March 9, 2011

The Holidays 2010

We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas both in South Bend, enjoying a great family dinner at Debbie & Donnie's. On Friday, after Thanksgiving, we saw Jack's family. Pictured on the left here is Jack's niece Gracie, his younger brother Eddie, and his nephew Rich. Eddie is undergoing chemo treatments now for cancer so we've all been praying for his recovery.

Christmas Day at Debbie & Donnie's

Cody is happy with his new Kinect, as Laurie & Mike look on

Amy likes to tease her mom and Donnie

Always one to get in on the act, Jack teases too as he sneaks in on Kimberly and Samantha's photo op

On the set of The Help

How exciting - I won a trip to the film set of The Help in Greenwood, MS on Oct. 10-12. Four other ladies won also - we'd all written how we were inspired by reading the book. Jack and I are pictured here with Octavia Spencer, who plays Minny in the movie. We had an amazing time. Our first night there, we were treated to an amazing dinner at the restaurant of the Alluvian, the hotel we stayed at. After we ate, we were thrilled when Octavia stopped by, along with Brunson Green, one of the producers. AND Minny brought her famous chocolate pie and we ate it up! (you just have to read the book!)

The next day we went to the set. We saw them film two different scenes, with Octavia (Minny), Viola Davis (Abilene) and Emma Stone (Skeeter). Viola and Octavia were wonderfully warm and everyone on the set was welcoming and friendly. Unfortunately, Emma Stone - not so much! She was "simply worn out" from coming from doing promo of her current movie, Easy A, and didn't want to greet us or talk to us. Funny that she is still not a big name in the biz, but felt okay snubbing us. Oh well - she's a kid! We had lunch in the "dining tent" - yummy meals prepared daily for the cast and crew. Jack and I sat at the table with Viola and Octavia and had a great time with them (Emma S. stayed in her trailer, she doesn't join the others for meals)

Me and Jack with Brunson Green, one of the producers.

The studio was selling everything (we were there on a Monday and they wrapped up filming on Thursday so it was all nearly over). This was some of the furniture used on the set, and there were shelves upon shelves of props, silverware, books, purses, shoes, etc. The prices on stuff were pretty good - but it was sort of hard to buy things to carry back on the airplane - ha! That is the director, Chris Columbus, on the far right.

Outdoors on the set. Star trailers, plus the makeup/hair salon trailer, the costumes trailer, etc. We did get to see inside the makeup/hair salon trailer, and talk to one of the ladies who did the makeup.

This is the street that our hotel was on. The Alluvian is an amazing, gorgeous hotel with an incredible restaurant - but it's out here in the middle of nowhere, on a cobblestone street in Greenwood, MS.

Annie was from Disney Studios, and was our "host" for our time here. Our package included this evening at the Viking School of Cooking which was directly across the street from the hotel. Viking provides just about all the jobs in this small town of 20,000. Here, I'm showing Annie how to make bruschetta (yeah, right), but I think she's more into the wine.

Jack wasn't too keen on our menu, so he left before the cooking started. After a yummy steak at the hotel's restaurant, he enjoyed having the TV and remote control in the room all to himself.

These are the tiropitas (cheese pies) and the lemon shrimp bruschetta. I never worked with phyllo dough before; it was fun to do something different, but you do have to move quickly with this super thin dough that dries out quickly.

We topped off the meal with a chocolate fondue - plenty of pound cake and fruit for dipping. And a GREAT time was had by all!!

Catching Up

Dear Blog - how far behind I managed to fall in posting. And I do love posting - it's just so hard to make myself make the time. So here's some of the events I missed.

Amy and Samantha came up over Labor Day Weekend for Madison's famous Taste of Madison. I think the promise of chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-eggrolls enticed them as much as a visit with their favorite aunt and uncle. It was Sam's first visit here so it was a lot of fun to show her around the city. We enjoyed brats at State St. grille on Friday evening, and then Saturday did Taste of Madison and visited Memorial Union Terrace. That's Sam in the huge chair - we helped her climb up.

Here's Samantha and Amy in front of the state capital

I found a grape vineyard in the newspaper and Jack and I went out on a Sunday afternoon and picked concord grapes for jelly making. It's the first time Jack helped with this fun task, and it was great to have him assisting me! We made 12 jars of jelly.

Amy came back in October to attend Wicked at the Overture with me and Jack. What a great musical! Our seats were perfect and it was a fun night!



It just wouldn't be October without making Apple Jelly. Unfortunately we waited too late in the season to pick our own apples, the orchard was picked clean and they wouldn't let us go out. We bought pre-picked Fuji apples and they proved nice and juicy so we made some great jelly - again with Jack's help.


The best thing we did this year, by far, was to have a LOT of dental work done for Jack. Most of his teeth (molars) had been pulled when he was in the Army, some 40 years ago. We found a great dentist here in Madison, and Jack got 8 implants and 16 crowns, covering his remaining teeth that were badly worn down. Here's the "before" picture.

Isn't that the best looking guy with the best-loking smile you ever saw? He's a hunk!